Older Cubans Long For Home

Family, Familiarity

Prompt Some To Return

Migdalia Delgado wants to give up the freedom she has come to know in the United States in exchange for the austere life she once lived in Fidel Castro's Cuba.

The 70-year-old woman's wish has nothing to do with politics.

It's about loneliness.

Delgado left Cuba in 1989 because her son Ventura Delgado had persuaded her to come and live with him and his wife in Miami. Delgado was happy in Havana because she was surrounded by family, but she missed her only son.

When Ventura Delgado died of cancer early last year in Puerto Rico, where he and his mother had moved with the family, Delgado was left alone in a strange country with no friends or family.

So Migdalia Delgado moved back to Miami. Now, she desperately wants to leave.

"I want to go back to Cuba more than anything," Delgado said. "When I lost my son, I lost my life. I have no one here in Miami, and I just want to go back to my country."

The problem is, Delgado has no money for the $390 plane fare to Havana or the $300 Cuban passport she must obtain from the Cuban Interest Section in Washington.

Her plight is not unique.

Many elderly Cubans, who come to the United States to reunite with family, later find themselves locked in an emotional quandary because they miss the familiarity they had in Cuba, said Kristina Arriaga, executive director of the Valladares Foundation in Washington.

The foundation is a human rights organization founded by former Cuban political prisoner and poet Armando Valladares.

"The true tragedy of most Cubans is not so much Fidel Castro, but the division of the family," Arriaga said. "I have seen a few cases where Cubans, who have come here and are living well, later want to go back to Cuba because they want to be with their families."

The pattern, Arriaga and others say, is most common among Cubans who are older than 60, or people who are terminally ill and want to die in Cuba.

Maria Menendez agrees. She runs the only travel agency in Broward County that sends packages and goods to Cuba.

Menendez says she has come across three cases in which Cubans who are in their mid-60s want to return to their homeland.

"When you come to think of it, what do these older Cubans really have when they come here?" Menendez asked. "They have Spanish television and radio and a little apartment somewhere in Little Havana. But they are lonely. They want to go back to the familiarity of their country and their customs."

Jose Luis Ponce, a spokesman for the Cuban Interest Section in Washington, said Delgado must contact his department and state her reasons for wanting to return to Havana.

He too has seen several cases of older Cubans who want to go back to the island.

"We get at least 10 calls a day from people who want to go back to Cuba," Ponce said. "When we get their requests they are sent to the immigration division in Havana and the decisions are made there. Each request is taken on a case by case basis."

Delgado, who is determined to file her request with the Cuban Interest Section as soon as she can scrape up the money for her airfare and passport, hopes her request is looked upon favorably once it reaches Havana.

"I tried to make friends here in Miami so I could stay here, but I haven't been able to," Delgado said, her eyes brimming. "People don't want to hear your sad stories. No one has time to talk.

"I know the situation in Cuba is rough. I know food is scarce and freedom is not complete. But what is freedom and a plate of food when your heart is breaking?''